As pets, pigs are a lot of work

A pair of Vietnameses pot-bellied pigs head toward the woods where they have taken up residence near an office park on Hammonds Ferry Road.

A pair of Vietnameses pot-bellied pigs head toward the woods where they have taken up residence near an office park on Hammonds Ferry Road. (Barbara Haddock Taylor, Baltimore Sun)

I hope great care is taken adopting out the two young potbelly pigs spotted in Linthicum ("Cuteness no defense as law closes in on fugitive swine," Sept. 24).

I'm sure pig rescue farm owner Susan Magidson has the experience and judgment needed, but I know from being a potbelly pig sponsor through the Ironwood Pig Sanctuary in Arizona that few people are up to the challenge and expense of keeping a large, strong, intelligent social animal who needs a very large secure pen or yard — preferably one with a heated house for winter, and plenty of shade and a mud wallow for summer.

Keeping a pig as requires an experienced person to trim hooves, a veterinarian willing to diagnose and treat the animal, the means to transport such a large animal to the vet, and proper zoning for the homeowners.

The two piglets in Linthicum do not seem to have come from such a home. I hope that they are not claimed by irresponsible owners, nor adopted by well-meaning but unsuitable new ones.